1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a composition for preparing a soft capsule shell, which includes a non-animal material, and more particularly to a composition for preparing a soft capsule shell, which includes modified starch comprising modified waxy corn starch and modified waxy potato starch, thereby realizing a soft capsule shell having appropriate hardness and elastic strength and delaying a browning phenomenon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Capsules for use in medicines or food are classified into hard capsules and soft capsules depending on the composition of the capsule shell.
The properties of typical hard capsules are determined by gelatin, which is contained in an amount of about 95 to 99 wt % based on the total weight of the composition thereof, whereas soft capsules contain about 30 to 70 wt % of gelatin, with the remainder of additives for improving the properties thereof.
Gelatin typically useful in soft capsules is mostly prepared by processing cattle hide, cattle bone or pig skin.
When gelatin is dissolved in a predetermined amount of water, the resulting solution has thermoreversible properties depending on changes in temperature. This means that gelatin exists as a viscous liquid colloid (sol) at high temperatures and is converted into a semi-solid phase (gel) at low temperatures. Due to these properties, gelatin is generally utilized in soft capsules.
Recently, societal acceptance of animal materials has decreased because of increased awareness of unsanitary processing and disease afflicting cattle and swine, such as mad cow disease or foot-and-mouth disease, and thus, research into non-animal materials and vegetable materials is ongoing.
Also, gelatin is obtained through hydrolysis of collagen and is configured such that amino acids are linked via peptide bonds to thus form linear or complicated branch structures.
In the case of soft capsules made of gelatin having such features, an intermolecular network is formed due to the components contained in capsules, such as aldehyde, tannin, and limonene, thus retarding the disintegration thereof. If the components of capsules have high pH, the hardness of capsule shells is drastically increased, undesirably leading to breakage of the capsules. On the other hand, if the pH thereof is low, to a level of 1.2 or less, the capsule shells are hydrolyzed and the contents thereof may leak, which is undesirable.
Hence, the preparation of soft capsules using carbohydrates derived from natural materials, in lieu of animal protein gelatin, has been studied for decades.
For example, there have been developed techniques regarding compositions for shells of chewable soft capsules including vegetable oil, perfume oil and amber gelatin and using a predetermined amount of starch, but acid-treated and chemically treated components are mainly used, undesirably resulting in harm to the environment and decreasing the binding strength of the capsules.
A conventional technique pertaining to the composition for forming a soft capsule film is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2012-0128602.